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I like them a lot but I just noticed that their SOS for their 1st 6 games is the worst in the NFL standing at a .404 winning percentage for their opponents. They are beating teams easily but outside of the Giants they really haven't played anybody. .404 is by a large margin, the easiest schedule in the league and we might not get a true picture of this team till the playoffs simular to Tennessee last year. Tennessee had one of the weakest SOS last year in the NFL which carried them to the playoffs but drew a very tough schedule this year. Think schedule makes a difference for teams???

their schedule was determined by a formula years ago except for two of their games, so saying this years tough schedule is due to last years success is not true, it was largely determined long before.

SOS in general is a relative statistic, hard to even put a value on at the end of the year. The Saints beat the Giants so their SOS avg. went up, but the Giants hadnt played anyone with a legit record (and neither had the Saints), so the Saints only 'big' win (that pulled their SOS up) was over a team whos beaten no one special, just proving how skewed a stat SOS is.

Originally posted by Thumper/JBCX/Bixby

Orton will never be in the same class as the Drew Brees or the Peyton Mannings or the Tom Bradys of the world. Kevin Kolb has the potential to be that kind of player.

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Off-topic, but Miami's had a beast of a schedule. They're 2-4 after playing Atl, Indy, SD, Buf, Jets, Saints. That's a murderer's row schedule. They've played the Colts & Saints as close as any team has this year.

They've still got NE twice, & Pitt, but aside from that, they might have 10-6 ahead of them.

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Pretty scary good. Their offense is a well oiled machine during most weeks with Brees' opening up the run game and executing nearly flawlessly himself in the passing game. The biggest reason for their turn around though, has to be because of their aggressive pass defense. No longer do they play soft coverages and vanilla schemes that allowed for opposing QBs to have field days, even if the run game was contained (as a rookie, Ryan completed 70% of his passes with 10.0 YPA and a 113.9 QB rating in 2 games against the Saints even though Turner averaged 3.5 YPC). This new defense seems to be attacking QBs and forcing them into making bad decisions.

Despite all of this however, I think we have to take into account who the Saints D has played. Stafford (first start), Kolb (first start), Sanchez (3rd start), Edwards (20-30 starts), E. Manning (70+) and Chad Henne (2nd start). Because of that, I only see 1 impressive defensive output, and that was limiting Eli Manning and their passing offense. An aggressive and attacking scheme does wonders against young QBs, but what happens when the Saints begin to play smarter and more experienced QBs (for the record, E. Manning's comp. % dropped by 8 and his QB rating dropped by 12 when blitzed last year. he is posting similar numbers against the blitz this year)? What happens to the blitzes when they have to play Matt Ryan (whose comp. % goes up by 3% and QB rating goes up by 25 points during blitzes, compared to his overall statistics), Tom Brady, Brett Favre, or other veteran, savvy QBs? I still think that the New Orleans' defense has the potential to be exposed, and though it may not happen when the Falcons go to New Orleans on Monday, but it could provide to be the Achilles heel for this team later on in the season (which is by no means 'bad.' the improvement they have made in terms of pass defense is tremendous for 1 season).

"He's the leader of the next great class of NFL players." - John Elway on Matt Ryan

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the saints sos wont go up much though. the remaining schedule has all the division games which means to tough games against atlanta and a tough road game against carolina but nothing crazy. They also host the cowboys and the patriots and will visit the rams and the skins.
lets say the saints win both games against tampa, 1 against carolina and atlanta and against the skins and rams. That would mean they do okay from now on but nothing special and the saints will still go into the postseason with a 12-4 record and probably a bye.
I dont know if the saints are a great team. I feel like they could very well be and I really hope so. What I do know is that they are a good team that wins when they get in front and has the fight to come back in a game.

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the saints sos wont go up much though. the remaining schedule has all the division games which means to tough games against atlanta and a tough road game against carolina but nothing crazy. They also host the cowboys and the patriots and will visit the rams and the skins.
lets say the saints win both games against tampa, 1 against carolina and atlanta and against the skins and rams. That would mean they do okay from now on but nothing special and the saints will still go into the postseason with a 12-4 record and probably a bye.
I dont know if the saints are a great team. I feel like they could very well be and I really hope so. What I do know is that they are a good team that wins when they get in front and has the fight to come back in a game.

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One thing about New Orleans is that they are definitely not invincible and they are not consistent in the way that they play either, they have just capitalized on opportunities that other teams have given them and found ways to win games. Take the Bills game for example (yeah, I watch Bills games closer than other teams), their offense really didn't win that game at all for them, it was all their defense and if the Bills had some kind of anything to do on offense it would have been a closer game. Right now the Saints gameplan from the 3 or 4 games I've seen them play so far this year is to keep the other team's defense on the field for as much of the first half as possible and then start pounding on them with the running game in the second half. Its also been shown that their defense is vulnerable to giving up a lot of points as well, and it seems like the defense plays worse when the offense plays better.

In the regular season, I don't see any team beating them unless its a shoot out because that seems to be when their team is most vulnerable, when their offense is actually putting points on the board. This is a very good team and I don't think anyone in the NFC is better right now. I always discredit the Broncos even though they're 6-0, but I think the two teams that can challenge the Saints right now are the Patriots and Colts (shocking...). Believe it or not I'd say that the Packers would be the team next most likely to beat them if they play their A game with the passing attack and their defense creates turnovers like they are capable of doing.

The Saints are scary right now, they are probably the best overall team in the NFC right now. Giants could be a better playoff team if they get healthy, but we won't know for a while. The Saints are much better than the team that went to the NFCCG a couple years ago.

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I like them a lot but I just noticed that their SOS for their 1st 6 games is the worst in the NFL standing at a .404 winning percentage for their opponents. They are beating teams easily but outside of the Giants they really haven't played anybody. .404 is by a large margin, the easiest schedule in the league and we might not get a true picture of this team till the playoffs simular to Tennessee last year. Tennessee had one of the weakest SOS last year in the NFL which carried them to the playoffs but drew a very tough schedule this year. Think schedule makes a difference for teams???

Didn't the Redskins only play winless teams for the first five or six games? Just did this quickly but I think their SOS is around .28. Probably been mentioned before but the SOS this early is pretty inconclusive, especially considering the fact that the saint victories over their opponents brings it down ~.1. Going off the SOS for the start of the season ther saints actually had the 8th hardest schedule in the league.http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft0...ory?id=4027503

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Didn't the Redskins only play winless teams for the first five or six games? Just did this quickly but I think their SOS is around .28. Probably been mentioned before but the SOS this early is pretty inconclusive, especially considering the fact that the saint victories over their opponents brings it down ~.1. Going off the SOS for the start of the season ther saints actually had the 8th hardest schedule in the league.http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft0...ory?id=4027503

Check my corrected post thanks to UKFan. the statistic that IAMCanadian used was the SOS of the whole schedule of each team, not the schedule up till now